Steel Wings
by DezoPenguin
Summary: Vivio finds that her greatest magical weakness is causing burdens both in battle and in her relationship with her mother.
1. Chapter 1

"N-Nanoha-mama?" twelve-year-old Takamachi Vivio squeaked. Seeing her adoptive mother waiting for her at her morning training session wasn't something she expected. She glanced left and right, verifying that the training ground entryway didn't have any good hiding places. _Nope. No luck._

"Hi, Vivio!" The TSAB's top air combat instructor gave her daughter a sunny smile.

"What are you doing here?" That wasn't the real question. The question was, _what is she doing here in her Barrier Jacket, ready for combat?_ Nanoha's Intelligent Device, Raising Heart, was in staff form; Vivio recognized the unbalanced U-shape of the crest as being Accel Mode, suitable for high-velocity bombardment.

"We're doing something a little different today, kid." It wasn't Nanoha who answered, but Vivio's instructor, Vita. The petite, red-haired Belkan knight looked like she was about Vivio's age, but that estimate was several hundred years low. "Nanoha wanted to get a look in person as to how you're coming along. She's seen all the reports, of course, but it's not the same as getting a feel for it in the field. So she'll be putting you through your paces today."

Vivio shivered.

"Um, Vita-sensei, why don't you just fracture my skull with Graf Eisen and send me straight to Shamal? It'll save the military lots of money for powering up the training ground and I don't really...want..." She was trying to be flippant about it in imitation of Vita's casual style, but nervousness tangled up her tongue.

"Mou," Nanoha moaned, facepalming, "what have you been _telling_ her about me, Vita-chan?"

"Nothing, honest!" Vita protested. "But she does have her afternoon training sessions with the school recruits. Is that it, Vivio?"

Vivio nodded.

"Geez, kid, what have they been saying to you?"

Vivio gulped.

"Um, well...they say that Nanoha-mama is the best of all the combat instructors..."

"That's true," Vita agreed, "but not scary. Out with it."

"...but they're all terrified of her; even the ones that _want_ to train with her are hoping to beat the odds..."

"Beat...the odds?" Nanoha looked totally confused. Vivio didn't look at her at all, instead keeping her eyes on Vita. It was the only way she could force herself to keep talking.

"They say that...um...if you pass Nanoha-mama's course you'll be a master of magic and guaranteed a spot in OCS or a prime front-line assignment, but that...um...the...t-the White D-Devil takes the life of every tenth student in payment for..."

"_What!_"

Vivio jumped at Vita's shout and embarrassed herself by squeaking.

"Is there anything _else_?"

"...Um, only that they think I'm studying with Vita-sensei because Nanoha-mama doesn't want to risk killing her own daughter..." Now _Vita_ was looking furious, and Vivio started wondering if she could get her own Barrier Jacket set up and a shield spell raised in time.

"Of all the...My _God_, I should go over there and pound those little worms into the _floor_! And _you_? You're trying to tell me that you actually _believe_ this absolute _crap_?"

"Well...I..."Vivio stammered. Vita's color was rising; her face was nearly as red as the dress that was her battle armor. Her eyes flicked from her teacher to Nanoha and received a jolt when she saw her mother's stricken face, tears at the corners of her eyes.

"I can't do anything about those recruits," Vita stormed on, "but I _damn_ well am not going to put up with it from _you_. Yes, training under Nanoha is hard. She pushes herself and her trainees to their limits, to get the absolute best out of every one. She's got around a thirty percent washout rate, yes, for people who don't have the guts of the drive to _be_ the best, and _that's_ higher than any other instructor in the service. But she has _never_ had a training fatality. Not. One. What's more, she's got one of the _lowest_ incidences of injury or accident, because no matter how crazy things get on the field or how intensely she drives people she always keeps the situation under control! She's not some crazed lunatic who likes to break kids for the fun of it or goes off blowing people up when she gets mad at them. Or am I wrong here? Come on, you're her _daughter_ after all. Maybe she Divine Busters you if you forget to make the bed or has you cleaning the house with a toothbrush if you get a C on your report card, maybe?"

"...No..." Vivio said in a very small voice.

"And here you are shaking in your boots because of what some stupid kids that don't even know her say?"

"Vita-chan..."

"I've never been so ashamed of you—hell , of anyone—in my whole life!"

"Vita-chan, that's enough." Nanoha's hand gripped the Iron Hammer Knight's shoulder. "_Please_, just...just stop it..."

Now it was Vivio who felt tears sting at her eyes. She didn't know how ashamed Vita felt, but it couldn't have been worse than her own feelings. She wanted to slither under a rock, a task that as low as she'd acted she didn't think would be very hard. But she couldn't do that, at least not yet.

"Mama, I..." she started, the stopped. Words weren't coming easily to her, but she had to continue. She'd screwed up badly and hurt her mother's feelings. _Her mother_. And it wasn't like Nanoha was her _real_ mother, with a tie of responsibility imposed by blood. The closest thing Vivio had to someone like that was Jail Scaglietti, the crazed scientist who's created her, a clone of ancient Belkan genetically-enhanced royalty, as a living bioweapon. Nanoha had _chosen_ to treat her as a child instead of a science experiment, to give her a home and a family and love. _Is there anyone in the whole world who has _less_ right than I do to criticize Nanoha-mama's feelings?_

Now she _did_ break down in tears, and flung her arms around her mother's waist, her head nestled against Nanoha's chest.

"I'm sorry!" she wailed. "I'm really, really sorry! I had no right to say those things. I...I was so _stupid_."

"Shhh; it's all right." Nanoha lightly stroked the back of her head. "It's my fault too, Vivio. I should have made sure you understand better about my work, especially with you wanting to join the military, too."

"But I was so awful! I as good as called you a monster!"

"I know, and that hurt," Nanoha said honestly. "But you'll know next time, won't you, that if you have questions you can always come to me?"

"Mmn!"

"Then that's okay, right?" She lightly pushed Vivio back, hands on her daughter's shoulders, so they could look at one another. "Loving someone means trusting them. A lack of trust will cut away at love faster than anything else. So make sure you bring any concerns right to me." She ruffled the top of Vivio's head.

"Um...so what _are_ you doing today?" Vivio asked.

"Hey, if you weren't cringing from your mom 'cause of kids flapping their lips, you'd know already," Vita put in. "You're doing mock battle today. Rules are simple: you go until you score one hit, you drop from exhaustion, or you have to go to school. Got it?"

Vivio was about to say yes, then stopped.

"Vita-sensei," she began hesitantly, "I'll never be able to hit Nanoha-mama. She's an air combat mage whose specialty is mid-to-long range bombardment. I only have one mid-range attack spell and it's not strong enough to break her shields."

Vita broke into a smile.

"Now _that's_ the Vivio I know! Thinking tactically already, aren't you?"

"But all the tactics in the world won't help in that kind of power gap. I don't even have any movement magic to make up for not being able to fly."

"Which is why for the purposes of this exercise, she'll be grounded, too. If she flies, you win."

"And my limiter is in effect, so I won't be able to win by Divine Bustering you from the far corner of the training field," Nanoha added.

"Or at least if she does you'd better be able to block it," added Vita. "You're supposed to be this hotshot at defensive magic, after all."

"Mmn!" Vivio wasn't scared of getting hurt any more (beyond the usual battering that combat training brought on), so she firmly vowed that she wasn't going to let herself be embarrassed, either. She might not win, but at least she could be spared any further humiliation.

"All right, then. Nanoha, you've got a three-minute head start. Go to it."

The Ace of Aces dashed off into the training ground on foot. Vivio watched impatiently as the timer scrolled down to zero.

"Go."

"Parsifal! Barrier Jacket: Armor Mode, set up!"

"_**Jawohl**_," answered her device. A flare of azure light roared up around her, replacing Vivio's T-shirt and shorts with her Barrier Jacket: a charcoal-gray bodysuit beneath a blue-piped black dress and blued-steel boots and gauntlets. Parsifal assumed the form not of a weapon but a vambrace on her right arm, emphasizing the heavily defense-slanted nature of her magical talents as well of this particular mode. Like Vita, Vivio was a close-combat forward, but unlike Vita whose primary strategy was to annihilate her opponents with overwhelming force, Vivio was more of a shield wall to block enemy attacks and keep her team protected. "_**Panzer Modus**_."

She stepped out onto the training ground, which magically generated artificial environments for combat practice. It had been set to its most common stage, a modern city of glass and steel. Urban combat skills were vital for mage soldiers to develop; it wasn't like a wilderness where there was nothing at risk or a low-magic planet where a fight could be contained within a barrier. With a magically active population and technology, barriers weren't feasible on most TSAB worlds, meaning that combat raised high risks of collateral damage. Thus, special emphasis was placed on urban scenarios in combat training.

_Now, where is Nanoha-mama? On foot she couldn't have gotten too far, could she?_ But that wasn't quite right, Vivio realized. This wasn't hide-and-seek; it was a mock battle. Nanoha would be thinking tactically, preparing to use her strengths to defeat her opponent.

"Parsifal! _Eisengeist!_"

"_**Ja.**_"

Vivio's personal barrier spell sprang up just in time as balls of pink light arrowed towards her. Nanoha's advanced shooting magic, Accel Shooter, conjured homing projectiles that could be as powerful as a lesser mage's buster-type shots. These wouldn't be at full power, but ever so Vivio felt the impact as they started to hit her defenses. It was lucky she'd put up the barrier, though, she thought as she bolted for cover; her Barrier Jacket was stronger than most—indeed, it was probably stronger than Nanoha's with her limiter in effect—but a steady pummeling could be too much.

She got around the corner of a building, but the shots swept around the corner after her and she took two more hits while dodging a third that crashed into the ground. More buzzed in on her; Accel Shooter created a good two dozen shots, after all, with just one casting. Vivio rounded another corner of the building, but they kept right on following, homing in on her.

_But that's not possible! She'd have to have her sight blocked by the building. Even if she's high up, she'd have to be directly overhead to—_

_No, wait._

There was a way it would work—if she'd run _towards_ Nanoha's position initially instead of away from it. Vivio spun around, planted her feet, and cast another spell.

"_**Panzergeist.**_"

This personal barrier was similar to the _Eisengeist_, but it was considerably stronger. Its weaknesses were that it didn't last as long and prevented Vivio from moving while it was in effect, but those didn't apply here. _My strength is supposed to be my ability to take a hit, so let's use it!_ The missiles crashed into her barrier, but Vivio shrugged them off while her eyes raced up the side of the building opposite. _Ah! There!_ Protruding over the lip of the roof was the edge of a bright pink rune, from the magic in effect for controlling the Accel Shooter. Nanoha was on the roof, probably because it gave the greatest number of vantage points.

"_Panzerfaust!_" An orb of rainbow-streaked white light formed and Vivio punched it, sending it cannoning upwards. It divided into four separate orbs in flight, which bent and streaked towards the edge. She doubted they'd score a hit since they weren't that powerful, but they gave her cover to rush across the street without taking further fire. Vivio barged through the front doors and into the building lobby, then stopped, glancing left and right. She had to get up to the roof, but how? The stairs would allow more freedom and not give an external sign of where she was, but this building was at least twenty stories! The elevator would be faster, but restrict her options and tell Nanoha exactly how and when she was coming.

Then she stopped and thought, realizing that it _had_ to be the elevator. No elevator would go to the roof, anyway, so she wouldn't need to worry about the floor readout giving her position. And there was another, much more important reason...

She pressed the button, the doors opened, and she stepped into the cylindrical car. As Vivio had expected, there was no "roof" setting, so she pressed the highest floor and felt the elevator begin to whistle her upwards. Around floor ten, a pink orb flitted through the walls into the car.

"**Area Search successful, my master!**"

"Tell her I'll be there in a minute, Raising Heart," Vivio said with a flippancy she didn't quite feel. Yes, she trusted Nanoha, but the ghosts of her earlier fears were playing around the corners of her mind. The ghosts did not materialize, though; the doors opened and she exited the elevator. The stairs were just down the hall; she ran for them. As she stormed upwards, feet slapping off the bare concrete of the utility steps, she realized that now all bets were off.

"Parsifal, load cartridge!"

The vambrace rose and fell, popping out the empty shell of the concentrated, stored magic now pulsing through it. Vivio threw open the door, finding himself face-to-face, about fifteen feet away, from Nanoha, who held Raising Heart at her side in a shooter's stance. Just as she'd expected.

"Divine—"

"_Eisenschild!_"

"Buster!"

Brilliant pink light blotted out everything as it crashed into the Belkan-triangle rune of Vivio's most powerful shield spell. Even in limited form, Nanoha's Divine Buster was ridiculously overpowered compared to other spells of its type, and having to eat it at point-blank range made Vivio's whole body ache with the strain. But her shield held, matching the attack.

It was impossible to hear Raising Heart eject a cartridge or the rattle of brass on the rooftop, but Nanoha's voice calling "Break Shoot!" sent icewater down Vivio's spine. She'd forgotten that her mother's high-end magics had barrier-piercing capabilities!

Luckily, Parsifal was with her.

"_**Negation.**_"

The shock of magic leaving her body at her Device's behest was like a dash of icewater in her bloodstream, but that was mild compared with what would have happened if the rose-tinted inferno had consumed her. Working together with Parsifal, Vivio had enhanced her base defensive spells so they could nullify any added properties of attacks striking them. Why should the shooting mages get all the fun?

The instant the Divine Buster ended, she was in motion, springing forward, covering the distance as fast as possible. The complete lack of any delay seemed to put Nanoha off her guard; Vivio got close enough to throw a punch, which Nanoha dodged—_Stupid! Attack the body, not the head!—_then followed with a spin kick to the midsection that was blocked with a Protection spell. Though no master at close combat, Nanoha brought Raising Heart around and crashed it into Vivio's side. The Flash Impact didn't do much more than stagger the girl, but Nanoha did take the chance to start opening up distance.

"_Panzerschild!_"

The basic shield spell was ordinarily a defense that appeared right in front of the caster, but Vivio had been training hard at doing more with her best area of skill than the basics. The shield appeared a good ten feet away from her, facing sideways—and about a foot in front of Nanoha.

Again, it was years of combat experience and reflexes that saved the Ace of Aces; her boot skidded slightly on the tarpaper but she saved herself from faceplanting into the shield and losing the fight by a single inch. Vivio had followed it up with another _Panzerfaust_, but Raising Heart's autoguard blocked the shots.

"Divine Shooter!"

Weaker than Accel but faster to cast, Nanoha sprayed homing shots towards Vivio. Not wanting to lose the chance to cast another spell of her own, Vivio dodged on foot, sprinting along the roof while the shots pelted in behind her. She'd worked on this in her mobility training with Vita and the close range virtually negated the homing function of Nanoha's shooting magic because of the speed of the missiles covering the distance between them.

Vivio turned, kicking against the lip of the roof's edge to increase the speed of her pivot. If she could get back into close range...

"Accel Shooter!"

_She'd been charging it up while guiding the last attack at me!_ Vivio realized, and with no time to do anything else she went turtle with another _Panzergeist_. Shots rained onto her, pounding her barrier when they hit directly, while more glancing strikes tore gouges from the roof around her. The assault ended and the barrier came down, and a slightly dizzy Vivio began considering what was her next option, when she saw eight more orbs streaking down at her. Nanoha had known the duration of Vivio's barrier, from the first time she'd used it if nothing else, and had held back several of the homing missiles until the spell had dropped. The shots dove in as one, slightly fanned to prevent any last-second dodge. One glanced off Vivio's head, three were square hits to the torso, one tagged her left calf, and three missed, pelting the roof.

The latter were the ones that proved the real problem. That area of the roof edge had simply taken one too many hits in structurally significant places; it might have been bad design in the training ground program or just plain bad luck, but a roughly eight-foot-wide semicircle crumbled out from under Vivio's feet and she went tumbling over the edge.

The last image she saw before blue sky replaced it was her mother's face turning from a smug "Gotcha!" look to one of stark terror. This was, after all, why Vivio had taken the elevator. Nanoha had been quite capable of spearing a Divine Buster right through the building's walls and floors to hit Vivio, but in the elevator she couldn't afford to do that. The purely magic damage of the buster, while hell on inanimate objects, wouldn't do worse than knock out the living, but a fall down the elevator shaft was an entirely different story.

_At least I'm conscious_, Vivio thought. Shields and barriers were useless against this kind of "attack"; they would do nothing to slow her descent and hence the force of the sudden stop, but her Barrier Jacket would at least cushion some of the impact. If she'd been knocked out that would go down-or would Parsifal keep it up?-and she'd never survive. Would she make it even _with_ the jacket? _Wait—maybe if I cast shields under me facing _up_ I could make it a series of _little_ falls instead of one big one..._but she was already halfway down and—

Suddenly, Vivio's descent began to slow, easing from a plummet into a gentle, almost lazy drift. A pink aura cradled her, holding her upright, and the white-clad figure of Nanoha, pink wings sprouting from her feet, swept down beside her, ushering her slowly to the ground. As soon as they touched down, Vivio flung her arms around her mother and clung to her, shaking like a leaf, and although Nanoha's arms closed comfortingly around Vivio as well, Vivio detected a nervous tremble running through her, too.

~X X X~

_A/N: The scenario for the end of this chapter was suggested to me by the scene in _StrikerS_ where Nanoha delivers a well-deserved beatdown in training to Teana, but then gently lowers the unconscious girl to the safety of one of Subaru's Wing Roads rather than just sending her flying. I strongly suspect that most accidents in TSAB training aren't the result of the actual exchanges of magic but what might be called "unscheduled environmental interaction." This is why I believe Nanoha has a low rate of such incidents: while she drives her trainees notoriously hard, she does so with great situational awareness (the same as she displays in actual battle) that lets her head off most such incidents before they occur and be ready to take preventative action for the few that do. The White Devil is, after all, not a crazed psychotic who runs around committing aggravated assault or attempted murder at the drop of a hat...she wouldn't be half as scary that way. The rumors about her, though, are taken from the real-world legend of the Scholomance, where the devil teaches magic to aspiring pupils but claims the soul of every tenth student as payment..._

_Additionally, as in previous fics, devices speak in __**boldface type**__, and English-to-German translations are courtesy of Google (with "negation" doublechecked since I was rather surprised that it was a cognate)._


	2. Chapter 2

"I thought my heart was going to stop, Yuuno-kun," Nanoha said, almost babbling. She'd had to talk to _someone_, to get things off her chest, and Yuuno was always good for that—maybe even better than Fate. She was closer to Fate than anyone, but even the blonde Enforcer wouldn't have denied that Nanoha was more used to supporting Fate in that relationship and it ran the other way much less often. They were sitting on deck chairs on the apartment balcony, looking out over the brilliant city lights. "I don't even consciously remember going after her; I was over the edge before I could even think."

"You're her mother, Nanoha. That kind of reaction is natural." The archaeologist and librarian's voice was gentle and reassuring.

"What kind of mother nearly kills her own daughter!" Nanoha exclaimed.

"It was an _accident_, Nanoha."

"Was it? I blew the support out from under a non-flyer twenty stories above ground! I was so hurt and upset by what she'd said—"

"What she'd said? You didn't mention anything about that."

"It was before the session started. She...Vivio was _afraid_ of me, Yuuno-kun. She was terrified that I'd...I don't know what she thought I'd do, but I swear she'd have jumped in front of a bus rather than have a mock battle with me."

"Ah," Yuuno said, nodding. "That reputation of yours."

"_You've_ heard such things?"

"Everyone has, Nanoha. You've done so many incredible things, been involved in so many incidents that ordinary people can barely comprehend, that the facts don't seem real to people. That means that the stories grow in the telling, because they're legends rather than reports. Sometimes they make you a larger-than-life superhero, the Ace of Aces. But that kind of power, and the resolute way you push yourself to use it regardless of the cost to yourself scares people, so you also become the White Devil. Haven't you _ever_ noticed?"

"I spend most of my time with the same group of co-workers, who all know me, and a limited circle of friends."

"Maybe we should have told you, then. Fate gets it a _lot_, since she works off-planet with people who don't know you. Chrono just thinks it's funny," he added sourly.

Nanoha sighed.

"Vita-chan got really angry at Vivio; she lit into her about believing bad rumors about her own mother and Vivio was really sorry about it afterwards, but...do you think I might have still been mad at her? That I subconsciously didn't control my attacks like I should because I somehow _wanted_ to hurt her?"

"No!" Yuuno protested at once. "No, Nanoha, that's...that's just not who you are. I can see you going all-out because you wanted to win the fight after that exchange, but you'd never put Vivio in harm's way. An accident is an accident, that's all. If you're in any way responsible, it's because ever since the breakup of Riot Force 6 you've been primarily dealing with Air Force recruits and aren't used to thinking of the limitations of the ground-bound in a training session. Otherwise you might have held your attack until she was away from the roof's edge. But there's no malice in that—and you did act at once to save her. She was scared, but not hurt."

Nanoha sighed.

"Thank you, Yuuno-kun."

"It's what I'm here for," he said with a grin.

She leaned forward, cupping her chin in her palms, her elbows braced on her knees.

"Ground-bound..." she murmured.

"What was that?"

"Yuuno-kun, am I a bad person for feeling sorry for Vivio?"

"_Sorry_ for her?"

She raised her head, looking up at the blanket of stars.

"If anyone took the sky away from me, I don't know what I'd do. And Vivio...Everyone significant in her life is air-capable: me, Fate-chan, Vita-chan, you, Hayate-chan, Zaffy, Signum-san, Shamal-sensei, even _Arf_ can fly. And Vivio..."

"Does it bother Vivio? Most of her school friends would be ordinary Belkan-style knights...well, what _we_ call Belkan-style, not the real thing like Hayate or the Wolkenritter or Vivio use," he drifted off, the researcher momentarily distracted by the details. He shook his head. "Anyway, flight would be the exception rather than the rule among them."

Nanoha sighed, bitterly, and then she said something that she'd only said to Fate, and that just once, on a night when everything had been going hellishly wrong and too much liquor had left her maudlin, dredging up every failure from her life.

"It's my fault."

"That doesn't even make sense!" Yuuno protested.

"She's a clone of the _Sankt Kaiser_, the Belkan Saint-Emporer. You know what that means better than I do, from all your studies. She was designed, not just Vivio herself but her original, to be unspeakably powerful. In our fight inside the Saint's Cradle I'd have lost if Vivio's mind hadn't awakened and started fighting to hold her body back. Do you understand what that means?"

"Like you said, better than you do. That wasn't Vivio you fought; she'd had a Relic implanted within her by Scaglietti, and Quattro was channeling the power of the Saint's Cradle through her."

Nanoha nodded.

"I know, but even so...do you remember from the files how we first found her—how she'd destroyed those Gadget Drones Scaglietti sent after her from pure reflex? An untrained child of five performing magic that did what B-rank mages had to resort to strategy to accomplish? The sheer force it takes to overload an anti-magic field?"

Yuuno frowned as her words began to sink in.

"You're talking about a level of potential for an S-rank at least, probably SS or even higher. But she isn't-"

"No, she's not. She's officially C+, and Vita-chan expects she'll easily pass her B-rank test in a couple of months. Her defensive spells are really, really good; she blocked a Divine Buster and it didn't even slow her down. The reports grade her top-end shield into the AAA range and it's pretty certain those effects will nudge up into S territory, but overall she'll be lucky to ever reach as high as AA. And it's my fault."

"I still don't follow."

"When we got back from that mission, Shamal-sensei gave Vivio a complete medical examination. It's not every day that a girl's aged up from five to fifteen, channels the power of an ancient lost civilization, and then gets pulled back down to where she started, right?" Nanoha gave a little laugh, not her usual distinctive "nyahaha," but softer and half-choked. "She...she'd been damaged by it. Her Linker Core was permanently affected. The Relic had been bonded to it, and I ripped it out of her by brute force. That's what did it. All she's ever wanted was to be a top Ace like her mamas, and I destroyed that dream before she'd ever gotten the chance to even dream it."

"There's no way you could have known that."

"I didn't _have_ to know it. If I'd been thinking, I could have tried something else—knocked her out with magical damage, maybe, then brought her out where the Relic could be carefully extracted under properly controlled conditions. But no, I had to be the hero and save her all by myself. Nanoha-mama to the rescue of her little girl!"

"Stop it!" Yuuno grabbed her hand, making her turn and look at him. "You don't really believe that, do you? Five..._five_ Blaster System-enhanced Starlight Breakers hitting simultaneously, _and_ the shock of extracting the Relic, _and_ snapping her link with the Saint's Cradle, _and_ reversing the changes to her body, and after all that _she was still conscious_. Exactly where did you expect to get the power to knock her out _from_? You could have burned all your life energy through the Blaster System and still not pulled it off. Going after the Relic was the only real chance you had to save Vivio, and you took it. That's not arrogance; that's what heroism _is_."

The intense sincerity on his face was almost a tangible force, the kind of force that could rock seven years of guilt on its foundations—but only rock, not destroy. That kind of hurt couldn't be absolved overnight.

"Maybe," she murmured, "but every time Vivio or anyone mentions how she can't fly, all I can think of is how I was the one who stole the sky from her."

Just inside the open balcony doors, Vivio slipped away before either of the adults turned and caught her eavesdropping.

~X X X~

"I need to learn to fly," Vivio declared flatly at morning practice the next day.

"You need to what?" Vita asked,

"I need to fly," she repeated.

"What, because you fell off a building? Look, kid, there are better ways to deal with your problems than wishing for stuff you can't have."

"That's not it, Vita-sensei. I...I _need_ to be able to do this."

"And I _need_ a little less backtalk! After that little stunt you pulled yesterday disrespecting your mom in epic fashion, you're not exactly in my good graces here. You're lucky you apologized or we'd be doing target practice with you as the target!"

"That's _why_ I need to fly," Vivio shot back. "Look, yesterday I had a really, really bad day as a daughter, all right? First I insulted Nanoha-mama to her face, then I nearly scared her to death when I fell, and then when I got home I found out last night that she blames herself for what I can't do!"

Vita crinkled her nose doubtfully.

"I know Nanoha. There is no way she'd say something like that to you."

Vivio shook her head.

"She didn't know I was listening." She left out Nanoha's worries about the training exercise, but told Vita everything else Nanoha and Yuuno had said. Part of her felt a little guilty for revealing her mother's feelings, but Vivio told herself that ultimately these were secrets _about_ herself and that made them hers to disclose. _Particularly when Nanoha-mama is wrong about things!_

"She said all that?" Vita mused.

"Mmn."

Vita shook her head.

"Damn, Nanoha, why didn't you _tell_ anybody you were feeling like this? Why do you always have to carry these burdens on your own?" Vita was as close to Nanoha as she'd have been to a sister, Vivio knew, so anything Nanoha was holding back hurt her, too.

"That's why I need to be able to fly, Vita-sensei. I don't want Mama thinking that she's responsible for hurting me or taking something precious from me!"

Vita sighed heavily.

"She would, too. Nanoha loves the sky more than anything but her family and friends. Thinking that you'd be denied it forever, and because of something she did..." She broke off, shaking her head.

"Nanoha-mama used to take me for rides in the air when I was little, showing me the world from the sky. That's what opened my eyes to the wonders of magic, the good things it meant. Before that, I'd known that there were people that _used_ magic to help people: you, Nanoha-mama, Fate-mama, Aunt Hayate, Subaru, Tia...but never that magic _itself_ could be a good thing. So it's not just that the sky is Nanoha-mama's special thing, but special to both of us."

Vivio smiled wanly.

"For myself, it's really just a question of power. I'd like to fly because I'd be a better mage, capable of doing more. But for Mama's sake...it's so much more important."

Vita nodded.

"C'mon, kid. Let's go talk to Mariel."

~X X X~

Mariel Atenza was an engineer assigned to the TSAB Ground Forces' headquarters lab. Vivio's Aunt Hayate—General Yagami Hayate—had headhunted her away from the Navy into her own branch of the service. She'd been the one to design Vivio's Device, Parsifal.

"Secondary modes?" the green-haired woman asked. "Sure; it's like I said when I gave you the boy, once we establish what your needs are, we can add parts to give Parsifal the capacity to do what's necessary. We can complement your strengths, like Raising Heart's Accel and Excelion modes make Nanoha a better shooter, or we can correct for your weaknesses, like Cross Mirage's dagger form. Cross Mirage is Tia's device, by the way."

"Mmn! I know."

"Oh, that's right. Sorry, I lose track of which of Nanoha's extended family keep up with each other." Mariel, Vivio recalled, had once been assigned to the _Asura_, where she'd been a support operator while her mothers had been lead field agents in their teens. "Anyway, what's the situation here?"

"She needs to be able to fly," Vita said.

Mariel flinched.

"What? Can't do it?" Vita pounced, a challenging grin on her face.

"N-no, of course I can. But let's have some data, first. Vivio, can I see Parsifal?"

Vivio slipped the black marble bracelet that was Parsifal's "at rest" form off her wrist and handed it over. Mariel crossed the lab and put him in a boxlike insert in one of the lab's many consoles and shut the door. It reminded Vivio of nothing so much as a person getting ready to heat instant food, which made her feel sorry for her device. Screens began appearing in thin air and a keyboard beneath Mariel's hands, and Vivio found herself looking at her own image, only in a variety of colors and shadings. The engineer's hands flew over the keyboard, the images changed rapidly, and she made all kinds of little noises, hums, and clicks of the tongue.

Vita waited through about thirty seconds of this, then shrugged and turned to Vivio.

"Treat you to a juice or something while we wait?"

"Yes, thanks." Vivio wondered if the lab vending machine had caramel milk.

"Hey, hey!" Mariel called. "I'm not going into a scientific fugue state just yet, you know! You field operatives are so results-oriented; you have no respect for the process."

"That's 'cause our process usually consists of 'use a bigger hammer,'" Vita joked.

"Watch it, Vita, or next time you've got Graf Eisen in for a tune-up I'll insert piko-piko parts so he squeaks when he hits things."

"The wrath of the support staff can be terrible," deadpanned Vivio.

"Aaaaaaand, here's your problem!"

"Really?" both of Mariel's guests chorused.

"Yep!" Mariel beamed. "It's the classic immovable object problem. See, if you watch the flow of magic here, and here, and here, and...and you don't really care about that, do you?"

"No, we care, really," Vivio piped up.

"We just have advanced degrees in hitting stuff rather than magical engineering," teased Vita.

Mariel grinned.

"Let me sum it up, then. As we all know, the primary power of the Belkan _Sankt Kaiser_ was to wield the Saint's Armor, an unstoppable defensive force. It's just with the Alhazred technology of the Saint's Cradle, _everything_ was scaled up. But that's why Vivio is pretty much a shield-first kind of mage. Here's the problem, though: the basic flow of your magic, right down to your Barrier Jacket, Vivio, is all about _resisting_ the effects of outside forces on your body. The very essence of flight magic is to _create_ such an outside force."

"So I'm grounding myself," Vivio sighed.

"Basically. It's not that you're not powerful enough to fly, it's that flight magic would have to fight _your own_ magic to get you aloft as well as the usual stuff like gravity, inertia, and so on."

"Turtles don't have wings," she echoed.

"Hey, don't be dismissing the power of my science so lightly! I'm just outlining the problem. Now, we move on to the solution, which is now completely obvious, especially given who your mother is, Vivio."

"I don't get it," Vita admitted. "Nanoha's device upgrades are like mine: more of the same, but bigger and stronger."

"The other one. Fate Testarossa Harlaown?"

Vivio clapped her hands together.

"Oh, I get it! Sonic Form!"

"Exactly. When Fate switches to her Sonic Form, she redirects the magic from her Barrier Jacket to her movement magic, giving her a constant sequence of Sonic Moves. The downside is a weakened defense."

"So I can have a Flight Form or something?"

"It's not quite _that_ easy. Fate's Sonic Form is _enhancing_ her basic abilities of speed and movement. You're trying to go in the opposite direction, so you're going to need some help from Parsifal. We'll strip a couple ranks off your Barrier Jacket, which will make you...average, actually, then add in some flight-enabler parts directly to Parsifal...that'll take a cartridge load to activate initially, I'm afraid...but it _could_ work..." Her fingers were flying over the keyboard, her eyes taking on the obsessed stare of the enthusiast.

Vivio turned to Vita.

"Caramel milk?"

"Sounds good."

~X X X~

"That's all, everyone. Excellent work today!"

Fourteen mages, ranging in age from eleven to twenty, sweat running down their faces, hair tousled, Barrier Jackets smeared with dirt and in some places ripped, looked up with beaming faces at their instructor's praise. This latest batch of recruits was coming along nicely, Nanoha decided.

"Make sure to do your cool-down stretches before you shower, and I'll see you tomorrow," she said, and waved as she flew towards the training-ground exit. She wondered what she was going to do for dinner that night; Fate wasn't due in for another month and Nanoha was getting sick of her own cooking. It wasn't a school night, so maybe she and Vivio could go out to eat? She still felt bad about how everything had turned out in training; it had been supposed to be fun, since the both of them liked to work hard at practice. Instead she'd found out that her stupid reputation had made her own child scared of her, and then after they'd patched that up she'd gone and justified it by accidentally pitching Vivio off a skyscraper! To say that the morning hadn't been one of her shining moments as a mother didn't come close to covering it.

_Vivio didn't seem unhappy, though_, she reminded herself—but while that had been true enough for the afternoon after the incident, she'd been positively pensive the next day, as if something big had sunk in.

No, the simple truth was, it had been an awful week, and Nanoha really hoped that she could spend some family time with Vivio just to make up for it.

"Mama!"

Funny, that sounded like Vivio, but no one's around...

"Nanoha-mama!"

That was unmistakably Vivio, but the voice had come from...above? Nanoha raised her eyes, then suddenly did a double-take in shock. Vivio was descending through the air towards her? Nanoha didn't wait for her to arrive, but went airborne herself, meeting her about thirty feet off the ground.

"Vivio...what's going on?"

Vivio pirouetted in midair.

"It's Parsifal's new Valkyrie Mode!" she said excitedly. "Mariel just finished the adjustments today!"

"Valkyrie Mode?"

"Mmn! It's his second-stage form, combining lighter armor with flight enablers so I can get into the air!"

Nanoha looked the girl over. The basic bodysuit was the same—Vivio apparently really didn't like miniskirts, which as a mother suited Nanoha fine—as were the boots and gauntlets, but the black dress was gone. In its place were elaborate shoulder guards that ran down her upper back and from which sprouted equally elaborate blued-steel wings, fully articulated right down to the feathers, though they didn't actually flap, instead curving around her in an aerodynamic match to whatever her flight pattern was. They looked kind of odd, though also appropriate somehow: wings for the ancient saint, metal for the girl who was metaphorically a shield rather than a sword or a shooting-staff.

And they held her aloft.

"You do know that flying inside city limits is forbidden, don't you?"

"Mmn. But...I wanted to show you right away!"

Nanoha smiled back at her.

"In that case, since we're already in trouble...I'll race you home!"

"**Accel Fin!**" Raising Heart cheered, conjuring Nanoha's flight booster as they took off.

"Hey, no fair!" exclaimed Vivio. Not to be outdone, Parsifal invoked his own booster magic, "_**Walkure Beschleunigung**_" and the mother and daughter arced off into the bright blue afternoon sky.

~X X X~

_A/N: Obviously, the discussion of the effects of Nanoha's Starlight Breaker-ing the Relic out of Vivio are pure speculation on my part, largely as an attempt to justify the direction I've taken with Vivio's abilities (I can at least _try_ to be internally consistent with myself!). Vivio's talk about how flying with her mama as a child helped to inspire her about magic was, however, not original but inspired by the _Sky Colors_ doujinshi, which is sweet, very short, by Fujieda Miyabi (!) and most importantly, translated by the good people at NanoFate dot net, who I'm very happy to plug because it was their work that introduced me to MGLN in the first place!_

_German translations are again largely by Google._

~X X X~

**Vivio's Magical Omake Theater!**

The candle flickered, casting weird shadows across the faces of everyone in the circle.

"And then...and then..." Nanoha intoned in a sepulchral voice, "the farmer turned to see a threatening figure, dressed all in black, carrying a giant scythe!"

"Eeeek!" Caro yelped, then realized that the six-year-old next to her hadn't so much as flinched at the climax of the ghost story. "Vivio, aren't you scared?"

"But...but...isn't that just Fate-mama?"


End file.
